Month: November 2016

When deciding to start a business, there is a multitude of legal issues that you will have to consider beforehand. Everything from the name of your business to the creation and upkeep of your product is bound by legal statutes and limitations. It might start to get tedious after a while but after you sift through the paperwork, the reward at the end will be your shiny, brand new company. The ThunderQuote team would like to help you figure out the logistics of starting your brand new company!

Starting a business is always daunting and extremely scary especially in Singapore. This is because over the years the amount of restaurants and cafes have doubled and almost every concept has been used and it’s hard to create a one of a kind establishment. But do not let this disappoint you because we feel that the foundation of any service is the most important thing. If you set up your company right from the beginning you have a much higher chance of succeeding and taking over the industry sooner or later.

If you had followed our previous article, you would have understood the structure and key elements of Procurement. Now when you are ready to implement a new procurement function, a key question is the resources that are needed in the new function and its scope. In other words, “What is the size of the problem?”Continue reading “Indirect Spend And Potential For Procurement”

Over the past decade or so, it has been seen that the internet has grown exponentially and the importance of having a website or an online brand for your business is at an all time high. Since starting a business today is a lot easier than it was 50 years ago, everyone has a great idea that they want turned into a business in the future. However, the execute every component of starting and maintaining a business is extremely difficult and you do need help every once in awhile.

When you run your own business, you definitely understand the value of the money you’ve put into the business. Owning a business or a start-up company is a huge responsibility and every decision you make will definitely have a domino effect on the business as a whole. As a corporate employee, you also have a duty to your company to ensure that you get the best deal for the company.

One of the most important decisions is to negotiate prices with your vendors to ensure a good inflow of services that your company needs. This decision making should be taken seriously and it’s good to always have someone else help you with these decisions. This article by ThunderQuote seeks to help with that.

In our previous article, we highlighted the difference between Direct and Indirect Procurement. Professionally managed indirect procurement has grown in importance in the last 15 years or so. For organisations who implemented such an initiative, the result was a convincing one. In this article, we introduce Procurement as a business function for organisations who have yet to embark on the journey. It is best to keep in mind that the Procurement function should act as the focal point for an organisation to interact and work with the supply or selling markets; synonymous to the Sales and Marketing functions who act as the channel to the customer or buying markets.

Deciding on the perfect IT vendor may be a tedious process, but the process is definitely an important one. It doesn’t matter what type of business you lead – a fresh business startup or maybe even an online service, rest assured you would want to rely heavily on the services that are provided by IT vendors. Therefore, choosing the right man or company for your business can, and in some case will make or break your company. Chances are good that they will work alongside you to steer the ship of your business to heights you never thought possible.

When you start a new brand of if you’re in the process of rebranding one, it can and it will be a very tedious process. A small business requires a ton of visibility if it wants to take off. Branding becomes super important because it not only gets you on the map, it shows people that you care about this company. Getting your brand on more phones, laptops and tv screens is crucial for your growth.

Organisations frequently need to outsource work to specialised service providers or purchase products from third party vendors. However, finding the right vendors is not always an easy task. Furthermore, the rise of freelancers has muddied the waters for corporate buyers. While costs are often lower, their risk profile may be drastically different, meaning more checks may be required. Whether you are part of your organisation’s procurement team or you are looking to work with a vendor on an outsourced project, here are tips to select the right partner and maximise chances of your project’s success!

Is your supplier genuine?
The first step is to verify the legitimacy of your prospective supplier. Check their business registration and public documents such as ACRA Bizfile to ensure they are registered. If the vendor provides a list of references, call up a few to ensure their validity. You can also check what value the vendor brought, whether they are easy to work with and if the vendor has good after-sales support.

Nowadays, most businesses have their own website and domain. It is simple to run a WHOIS check by Googling “(business domain name) Whois check” and ensure that the registrant is the organisation in question. I also recommend checking the number of years registered, domain age and whether they have a local address to be used as additional points of verification.

Quality checks
Besides worrying about fraudulent suppliers, another concern is the vendor’s quality and ability to provide long-term support. Quality checks can be done through basic assessments such as vetting their websites, collaterals, past portfolios and testimonials. If you are sourcing through a B2B vendor platform, then certain checks are likely to have already been performed. Nevertheless, it is still wise to do your own background work. Whenever possible, ask friends or business contacts if they have any referrals. If a trusted contact has already established a good working relationship with the vendor, they have already done a background check for you.

For certain products and vendor types, especially for significantly important or high value projects, site visits are advised to ensure the quality and check on the vendor’s capabilities. Meeting face-to-face meet with the vendor will greatly help in determining their trustworthiness. If meeting in person is not possible, then make a call or use Skype. Ask them questions about their history, products, previous similar jobs, payment and delivery terms, to ensure they know their field and are capable of meeting your needs.

Getting independent vendor quotations for fair comparison
It is recommended to get multiple quotations from suitable vendors (minimum three) in order to make a fair comparison, before making your final decision. Unfortunately, people often find the process of getting multiple quotations from relevant vendors a hassle and time-consuming. Online platforms like ThunderQuote, GeBiz or Freelancer assist in the matching processes and guarantee an independent assortment of vendor quotations for fair comparison.

Develop risk profiles and put in place risk mitigation strategies
Generate risk profiles on your shortlisted vendors to check on their long-term viability. This is especially important if your project is likely to take several months to complete, or if you require ongoing support after the initial period. In addition to checking with references or previous clients, some of this information can be found through ACRA or third party-tools such as MyFINB. Reviewing vendors’ financial data is important but tough to execute, hence less frequently done. This is where specialized tools like MyFINB become useful, as it provides data extraction, analysis and summaries. This makes due diligence simple and accessible.

Once you have identified possible risks, determine ways to manage them. For example, a local business wanted to implement an IT system to provide HR support. They were about to hire a large reputable international company to build a customised IT system. However, the local business quickly realised the risks of poorer ongoing support due to the fact that the international company was based overseas. Finally they selected another international company that had a local branch office, to provide ongoing support. They also incorporated stricter documentation and training requirements as part of the project scope, and also requested for a third-party developer advice to ensure the system was coded on a commonly used language. This made it easier to transfer the project to other vendors, if necessary. These extra steps greatly mitigated risk of support failure.

Monitoring
Once the vendor is confirmed, regular monitoring is essential to ensure the risk profile and risk mitigation strategies are up-to-date. Keep track of important metrics, to ensure good performance of vendors during the contract period. An open communication channel with your vendor is important to provide feedback and enable them to stay on track, while they update you early on any possible obstacles or risks.

Junming Tan is co-founder of ThunderQuote is the most comprehensive business services portal in Singapore, Australia and ASEAN , where hundreds of thousands of dollars of procurement contracts are sourced every month by major companies like Singapore Press Holdings, National Trade Union Congress and more.

This article was first published in The Straits Times Recruit on 11 November 2016.

Have you realised that you don’t possess the manpower needed to successfully run your F&B business? Or do you come home exhausted everyday because you’re running around after your workers at the restaurant? Well, it might be time to start thinking about automating your F&B business and living in the clouds. (The internet clouds that is).

This guide by ThunderQuote seeks to help you think through your first steps to automating your F&B business and bringing productivity to the next level.